Ramadan: “Rejoice with us”

This year’s Ramadan began yesterday, and in the evening Muslims broke their fast for the first time. They didn’t eat or drink anything until sunset. But the believers do not want to be pitied for this.

What Ahmet Malak prepares in his Munich restaurant kitchen doesn’t look like renunciation at all. “Annes Haus-Mamas-Kost” is part of the Munich Forum for Islam, the chef is also a Muslim – and Ramadan has just begun. Muslims refrain from eating and drinking for a month.

But only during the day. As soon as the sun goes down, they can access it. In the Bavarian capital, Ahmet Malak’s restaurant in the Munich Forum for Islam is a focal point where Muslims come together for iftar. The daily breaking of the fast, the first of this year’s Ramadan, took place on Thursday evening at 6:36 p.m. sharp.

Breaking the fast like the Prophet

Hummus and lentil soup, meat and bean stew, rice are served, and baklava for dessert. At the beginning of the approximately one hundred meals there is a modest glass of water and a date. “It’s such a tradition because the Prophet Mohammed broke his fast that way and since then we’ve been doing it like him,” explains the chef.

Muslims also attribute a special effect of internal purification to the palm fruit. In addition, the desert fruit provides quick and healthy energy after many hours of abstinence.

Ramadan as “Personality Development”

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan – similar to the Christian fasting period before Easter – is by no means just about abstaining from eating and drinking. The days of fasting are also days of prayer, reflection and inner contemplation.

“For me it’s a time of coming together, of community, of peaceful coexistence,” says a guest at the table of “Anne’s Haus-Mamas-Kost”. For him, the conscious moderation also has something to do with character development: “What we call self-development or personality development today, we always do in Ramadan, so to speak.”

Respect instead of pity asked

Many Muslims don’t want to be pitied because they don’t eat or drink. Numerous memes, pictures and videos are circulating online about what fasting Muslims would wish from non-Muslims in Ramadan: “Rejoice with us, congratulate us,” writes the Austrian author Amani Abuzhara on Instagram. In Ramadan, Muslims give a sign of strength – and that’s just not something “that others have to feel sorry for”.

So outsiders should be wary of sayings like “Not even water?” or, out of respect, do not bite into a sandwich directly in front of someone who is fasting. And if you want to be particularly nice, you can wish “Ramadan Mubarak”, i.e. “Happy Ramadan”.